"The claim by Dr. Saraki that he donated N10 million to care for the victims of the Offa robbery is patently false. He did not! The 10 million he referred to was donated when the Offa market got burnt, and it was made in Ilorin, not Offa. When Dr Saraki visited Offa to commiserate with the community in the aftermath of the robbery, he did not donate a dime! I challenge him to prove me wrong," the Minister of Information said.

by SaharaReporters, New YorkDec 31, 2018

Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, has faulted the claim of Senate President Bukola Saraki on donating N10million to victims of the robbery in Offa, Kwara State.

Saraki was said to have claimed in an interview on radio that he donated N10million to victims of the Offa robbery, when he visited the community to commiserate with the people.

However, according to NAN, Mohammed debunked Saraki's claim, stating that the Senate President lied, and warned him not to play politics with the incident.

"The claim by Dr. Saraki that he donated N10 million to care for the victims of the Offa robbery is patently false. He did not! The 10 million he referred to was donated when the Offa market got burnt, and it was made in Ilorin, not Offa. When Dr Saraki visited Offa to commiserate with the community in the aftermath of the robbery, he did not donate a dime! I challenge him to prove me wrong," the Minister of Information said.

A statement issued in Lagos on Monday by Segun Adeyemi, Mohammed's media aide, claimed that in the wake of his (Mohammed) first warning, the apparently embarrassing radio interview was hurriedly edited to remove all references to the Offa robbery and then re-aired across Kwara State.

The statement continued: "Instead of stopping at that, which in itself constitutes an acceptance of wrongdoing, Dr. Saraki went ahead to hurl insults at me, even when I have been largely restrained in issuing my earlier warning. Had I not been restrained, I would have gone ahead to divulge what actually transpired.

”But with politics in the air, the truth becomes the first casualty. Realising that he goofed, Dr. Bukola apparently caused the radio interview in question to be edited to remove the donation reference, and then re-aired. Is it not an irony that the people who engaged in this egregious act of dishonesty are the same ones calling others names?

”The people of Kwara, who are bone-tired of the long years of ‘bolekaja’ governance in the state, are all saying in one voice, ‘O to ge’ (enough is enough), and will soon have the opportunity to express their frustration with their votes."

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